The battle for the soul of Ohio is on with the Legislature’s full-fledged attack on democracy: Today in Ohio

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Republican lawmakers set an Aug. 8 election in which Ohio voters will decide whether it should be harder to change the constitution, in a move to defeat an abortion-rights ballot issue aimed for November.

We’re talking about the double speak of outside money buying elections on Today in Ohio.

Listen online here.

Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with impact editor Leila Atassi, editorial board member Lisa Garvin and content director Laura Johnston.

You’ve been sending Chris lots of thoughts and suggestions on our from-the-newsroom text account, in which he shares what we’re thinking about at cleveland.com. You can sign up here: https://joinsubtext.com/chrisquinn.

Here’s what we’re asking about today:

Did Ohio’s Republican lawmakers get enough votes to enact their sleazy plan to reduce the value of voters and end majority rule on Constitutional amendments?

Today ends the national pandemic emergency, which means we will have to pay for tests and shots and the like. Seemed like a good time to examine some of the lifestyle changes compelled by the pandemic that are likely to be permanent. Loneliness is one. What do the experts say?

The last time we had a Senate race in Ohio, Republican candidates flooded the ticket. Not so this time. Why not?

How much have the values of homes in East Palestine dropped since the train derailment there, and what is Norfolk Southern doing about it?

How many school districts have written a letter to Ohio lawmakers to fight back over the move to spend more money on private schools?

How is Senator Sherrod Brown stepping in on immigration policy and try to preserve some of the status quo?

How close is Ohio to loosening up its child labor laws?

Who’s the new sheriff in town?

John Kasich made the Ohio motto something that never rang clear – Find it here. Mike DeWine just changed it. What’s the new motto people will see as they drive into the state?

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Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.

[00:00:00] Chris: The Battle for Ohio Democracy is on coming to a voting booth near you in August. It’s today in Ohio. The news podcast discussion from cleveland.com and the plane dealer. I’m Chris Quinn. I’m here with Lisa Garvin. Layla Tassi and Laura Johnston. We all know pretty much what the news is, but let’s talk about it anyway.

Did Ohio’s Republican lawmakers get enough votes to enact. Their plan to reduce the value of voters and end majority rule on constitutional amendments. Laura?

[00:00:35] Laura: Yeah, this is so disappointing. I really hoped that the good guys would win in the end, but the Ohio House approved this Senate joint resolution two by a vote of 62 to 33.

All the yess came from Republicans. Uh, five Republicans did vote no, including Tom Patton from Strongsville, but basically, Uh, they, they did two votes. One did they amend the resolution, so they put that August election back on the, the table, and then they [00:01:00] passed it, and then it went back to the Senate as a, you know, formality.

And then it was back. So only 56 Republicans actually voted for this amendment, but that’s all they needed. And then 62 approved the whole thing, which is, I mean, I still think it’s unconscionable what they’re doing, but this would just make it harder for even a constitutional amendment to get on the ballot in the first place and for it to pass.

[00:01:23] Chris: So you were probably screaming so loud last night. You lost your voice. I think I was screaming

[00:01:27] Laura: at my kiss three nights of little league and this voice is not helping.

[00:01:32] Chris: So look, the, this isn’t automatic. Ohioans have to be complicit in reducing the value of their vote, of crushing our democracy. So everybody gets a say I.

I’m surprised Laura, not that they did it. For the wrong reasons. I’m surprised that a smart Republican or two didn’t stand up and say, you know, this is a bad move cuz we’re probably gonna lose. I don’t think this is gonna work. Every group, [00:02:00] except for a couple, have stood up against this. There are so many people that are against this, including former governors, former attorneys general, the entire labor movement of Ohio, and the message is clear.

They’re trying to neutralize you, neutralize the power of the voter. Yeah. Their, their only message is a

[00:02:20] Laura: lie. This, they’re saying a hundred percent. It is complete double speak. It is like they’re saying what would happen is what they’re doing. It is. They are just lying.

[00:02:31] Chris: And I don’t think you can get away with that.

The one, it’s easy to put it in August when you’ve already outlawed August elections. And that’ll be, that’ll be parroted. And they’re saying this stops outside interest from affecting the constitution when it is outside interest that are paying for the messaging to change it. And I look, this is, this is a volleyball.

That has been served up to the people of Ohio Democrats. It, this is such an easy message to deliver. Will they screw it up? Democrats and [00:03:00] others in Ohio are so disorganized, but it’s, it’s not just Democrats either. I mean, the police unions are not democratic. It’s, this is common sense.

[00:03:10] Laura: Absolutely. But the, you know, the turnout in August elections is something like 9% and people, you know, are gonna be on vacation.

I’m supposed to be on vacation. People need to pay attention to this. They need to vote early. They, I mean, it’s one issue, right? It’s not gonna take you very long to vote. But these are lobbyists that are trying to erase people’s vote in Ohio and it’s Ohio right to life. It’s the, um, it’s the lobby that wants to vote down a fair wage amendment and the Ohio right to life.

Spokesman. Actually yesterday called this a great day for democracy, which, oh my gosh.

[00:03:45] Chris: But hold on, hold on. Yes. Voter turnout in August. Elections is really minuscule. We don’t have issues like this on the August Battle. No, this is for everybody that. Worries about the Dobbs decision. This is a rallying [00:04:00] cry to vote for everybody that prizes democracy.

Instead of having an authoritarian government developing in, in Columbus. This is a big issue. I don’t think you can count on the low turnout. It, it, again, it comes down to messaging. I just don’t think people are gonna stay home. Young people aren’t gonna stay home. Women aren’t gonna stay home because this goes to the basic rights of Ohioans.

Right? So, and,

[00:04:23] Laura: and let’s, they’re putting it in August. Specifically to defeat the abortion amendment, like let’s mention that.

[00:04:29] Chris: And if you’re told that as a voter, you’re gonna think, well, I’m not gonna let that work. I’m gonna make sure I vote. And every, the message will be everywhere about how to vote, how to get an absentee ballot, how to, to do it.

I mean, it, it’s going to create a crackling summer of political coverage in Ohio. Uh, but I do think they’re gonna go down and that will build momentum for the abortion amendment. When it is on, in November, Lisa, we were talking before the podcast, she said they were already taking money from outside the state to deliver a message [00:05:00] that says this is to stop money from outside the state affecting our politics,

[00:05:04] Lisa: right from an Illinois billionaire, and I can’t recall his name, it’s not in front of me, but he gave over a million dollars to support this amendment.

So it’s, it’s crazy. But I, I do wanna say that I was very heartened by the. Photograph I saw in cleveland.com where the inside the rotunda of the Capitol was full of people protesting this and people protesting outside. So, you know, cuz we were concerned, Layla was saying some of her friends didn’t even know what was going on.

Mm-hmm. I think more and more people know what’s going

[00:05:32] Leila: on. I’m very concerned that, that many people are unaware of, of how important this is. So everyone listening, please talk to at least one person who felt this, spread the word. I mean, this is, and also as they’re gathering signatures for the, the, uh, reproductive rights piece.

I, I hope that they’re also, you know, talking to and some, and passing out literature or whatever they need to do to let people know [00:06:00] that this is a threat to, to that vote in. Yeah. In November,

[00:06:04] Laura: I was actually asked, uh, there, I saw people signing for the fair wage, the minimum wage raising to $15 an hour, and those people should also be telling people, because that would affect that, right?

I mean, the, the opponents are the ones that want. To make it harder. I was talking to someone and they’re like, well, if they think it should be so hard to change the constitution, why don’t they make it 60% for this one to pass? Of course.

[00:06:25] Leila: Mm-hmm. That’s the greatest hypocrisy. If they believe so much in that 60% plus one threshold, build that into this.

Well make that the requirement for passage of this,

[00:06:36] Chris: we should mention there is a legal issue. There were supposed to be, yes, two bills passed. One was because they passed a bill that Mike DeWine signed earlier this year, outlawing August elections. The thought was they need a law to allow this to be a special election, which Mike DeWine would have to sign, which he already said he was.

He is not. Shown character in this at all, but now they’ve skipped that. And so, mm-hmm. I [00:07:00] expect this will go straight to court saying, wait, y y you’re violating your own law. The governor signed the law outlawing elections. He has got to sign the law making it possible again, and they’ve just skipped past that.

And so it’ll get tied up in the Ohio Supreme Court. And of course, we know what those folks think. They don’t care what the Constitution says, they’ll violate it. Uh, lots to come. You’re listening to today in Ohio. Today ends the National Pandemic Emergency, which means we’ll have to pay for tests and shots and the like.

Seems like a good time to examine some of the lifestyle changes compelled by the pandemic that are likely to be permanent. Loneliness is one. Leila, what did the experts say?

[00:07:41] Leila: Yeah, indeed. Sadly, loneliness and and a loss of social connection are among the, the lingering effects of the pandemic, and it isn’t just a problem that older adults are facing.

Of course, at the beginning of the pandemic, we were very concerned with how senior citizens would be coping with the isolation. But Dr. Dawn [00:08:00] Potter, who’s a clinical psychologist at the Cleveland Clinic, said that actually older adults often are more accustomed to coping with loneliness, which is very sad to think about because at that stage of life, you know, often their grown children have moved away and many of their friends and family members have gotten sick or have passed.

So it could be. It could be that they are more adaptable in situations like what we’ve experienced during the pandemic, but that it’s actually younger adults who had a very difficult time rebounding from the loneliness. And that being comfortable with using technology to communicate could actually be a detriment to us because it sometimes means we underestimate our need for in-person social interaction.

For example, you know, working from home was easy and convenience in many ways to have that flexibility, but think of all the lost interaction in the workplace and for someone just starting out their career, not forming those networks could be very harmful. So many young people. Come in for treatment for anxiety [00:09:00] and depression, but what they often need is more social interaction is what Dr.

Potter said. This recent report by the surgeon general detailed this epidemic of loneliness and said that we have to make this a public health priority now, and it called for people for healthcare professionals, schools, workplaces, governments, community organizations, to consider the ways in which their, their policies and messages promote social connection.

And Dr. Potter said, you know, we just have to try to be more social to put ourselves outside of our comfort zone sometimes, and join activities that bring us in closer proximity to other people to overcome that habit that we have developed of isolating that the pandemic created.

[00:09:43] Chris: I should say not all of the stories we’re doing on this are so depressing as this one.

We do have an interesting one coming up on libraries. We have some things on shopping trends and, and others, but this is, this is one of the, the permanent markers is that so many people are isolated [00:10:00] now who were not before. Uh, and if they don’t focus on it and work to get around it, we’re, we’re gonna be a much more depressed society.

It’s

[00:10:09] Leila: a good story. Yeah, I agree. I, I feel like in my own experience, you know, working from home for all those months, it sort of rewires you in a sense. I found that it was, it was harder then to be social when the time came. It was harder to, mm-hmm. Um, I, I agree it, you have to put yourself outside your comfort zone and force yourself into those situations to.

To overcome that, that, you know, the draw back into isolation.

[00:10:32] Laura: And I think people keep them their hands to themselves so much more than they did before. Covid. Like, you don’t hug people as much, you don’t handshake as much. Mm-hmm. Right. And I think it also speaks to the community that we’ve talked about before, the loss of a church community or, or social groups where people are, are feeling lost and that’s why they feel maybe so partisan in some of those hate groups we’ve talked about in the past because they’re looking for somewhere to belong.

[00:10:55] Chris: D has have Leila, has that changed since we’ve been back in the office? Do you feel like?

[00:10:59] Leila: Oh, I [00:11:00] think it’s, it’s made a great difference to come back to the newsroom. I mean, even just getting dressed for work, you know, that, I mean, coming in and, and, you know, having those conversations has made a great deal of difference.

And I’m sure that I’m not the only one who feels that way. Well, we’ve lost our

[00:11:16] Lisa: rituals. I mean, I’m retired and everything, but, uh, you, when you lose your rituals, you know, you have to get those back and sometimes it’s hard to get them back.

[00:11:25] Chris: Yeah. Yeah, it’s a good story by Gretchen. It’s on uh cleveland.com.

We’ll be rolling out a handful of others over the next few days. You’re listening to today in Ohio. The last time we had a Senate race in Ohio, Republican candidates flooded the ticket almost two years out. Not so this time. Lisa, why not? Yeah. Republicans

[00:11:45] Lisa: are in no hurry to challenge longtime Democratic senator.

She Brown, who’s been in office since. 2006. We’ve only had two announced so far. Matt Dolan, the, uh, state senator from Chagrin Falls, announced in January. He is [00:12:00] not seeking Donald Trump’s endorsement. He’s actually urging voters to move on from Trumpism. Uh, number two was Bernie Moreno, the Cleveland businessman, and, uh, he announced, uh, just last month, he’s the father-in-law to us.

Representative Max Miller of Rocky River, who’s a. Former Trump aide, and he’s believed to be the favorite to get Trump’s endorsement in this race. But by this time in 2022 for the race for Portman’s seat, there were already four in the race. And then JD Vance announced just pretty soon after that. So waiting in the wings is Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who is seriously considering he’s.

That he will decide by mid-summer. He thinks that she, brown is beatable, but it won’t be easy. He says it will take the right candidate. Not sure if that’s him, but uh, fundraising may be an issue for LaRose. They’re saying you need at least 10 million for a Senate campaign, and he’s got three young daughters, but he does have a new political team and he’s got a group called [00:13:00] Leadership.

For Ohio Fund, which is a 5 27 group that can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money. And he says he may try for the Trump endorsement, but he’s not really sure. So also, uh, US representative Warren Davidson from Dayton. He, it’s not visible yet, but apparently the Ohio Republican Party is convinced that Davidson will run.

They said, you know, some are considering going for the Congress seat that he will vacate if he does run. And there’s a group called Club for Growth, which is a DC anti-tax. Group and they say they will back Davidson if he decides to run.

[00:13:34] Chris: The, we should point out that Frank LaRose is the architect of the first subject we talked about today.

Mm-hmm. This idea of destroying Ohio’s Democratic principles by taking away majority rule and allowing 40% of the population to dictate policy for the other 60%, I think that’s gonna hang on him like an anchor. I don’t see him handing any chance to get this nomination, especially if that fails. We’ll see.[00:14:00]

Mm-hmm. Go ahead, Lisa.

[00:14:01] Lisa: No, I was just gonna say, yeah, it, you know, if the, if the party is worried that he can’t raise enough money, I wonder, you know, how that’s gonna go. So, yeah, we’ll see. And they’re not expecting any other major candidates to step up. Mike Gibbons probably won’t. He ran against Sportman and lost Jane Timkin has said she’s not interested.

Josh Mandel is not interested, so it’ll, it might be a smaller field. We’ll see. I,

[00:14:23] Chris: I think LaRose might have been a credible candidate before he went. Total Trump. I mean, he, he’s a Secretary of State and while he said Ohio ran safe elections, he kept making saying statements that wanted to cast doubt on the election.

In other states, he was becoming a pseudo election denier, which is ridiculous for a Secretary of State. And now this latest anti-democratic movement. I just think it. Trashes his reputation as it should. You shouldn’t, as Secretary of State be reducing the value of a vote you’re listening to today in Ohio, the values of [00:15:00] homes in East Palestine have dropped because of the trained derailment there.

And Norfolk Southern says it’s going to do something about it. What is it, Laura?

[00:15:08] Laura: Well, they’re gonna reimburse people for home value. They lose. But they have to sell it in order to get that money. So you can’t just say, well, my house is worth less. I want more money now. So people who live within five miles of the derailment sell their homes for less bef than the pre February appraised value.

They, there’s gonna be a fund to reimburse them.

[00:15:29] Chris: How, how does the appraised value get assessed, though? Is it gonna be based on the county tax roles, which are really never accurate? Or is it gonna be based on a true market evaluation?

[00:15:39] Laura: I think there’s gonna have to be more details yet to come. There’s still a plan to be developed, but I, I did look up some East Palestine real estate on Zillow, and there was a house listed for like $700,000 and the, the tax value was like $60,000.

I’m like, what are they trying to pull off here?

[00:15:57] Chris: They’re trying to get [00:16:00] $640,000 from Norfolk Southern. Well, I, I, I mean, I think they would be sued for this if they didn’t try to make good. It’s all in the details though. Are they going to actually make good on what the loss is? Are they gonna try and play a numbers game?

Uh, it’s good that they’re stepping forward. We’ll have to watch and see if they are honest. It’s today in Ohio. How many school districts have written a letter to Ohio lawmakers to fight back over the move to spend more money on private schools? Layla,

[00:16:32] Leila: 43 urban school districts in Ohio, including Cleveland Metropolitan School District, signed this letter calling for them to fully fund now an education overhaul plan that they had planned on phasing in over six years and to make public schools the priority.

The proposal that’s on the table here includes several changes in education in the two year state budget, which is of course under consideration. One is that they would change the threshold of family [00:17:00] income eligibility for the ed choice scholarship program from 250% of the poverty level to 450%. So from the current 75,000 for a family of four to 135,000.

And in the letter that the school district submitted the, the public schools are arguing that changing that income threshold so dramatically basically means that anyone would be eligible to take their voucher and. Leave their public school district and, and that erodes the quality of public schools.

It’s especially unfair because the private schools don’t have to meet many of the same state requirements that the public schools have to meet in terms of guaranteeing reading proficiency and testing for learning disabilities and things like that. Also, lawmakers. Would be phasing in the third and fourth years of this six year implementation of the Fair School funding Plan, which was developed to address inequity issues with Ohio school’s funding.

And we all know, of course, that the funding formula has been deemed, uh, unconstitutional twice by the Ohio Supreme Court. [00:18:00] So the plan would add at least 2 billion more per year to public school funding based on 2018 levels, which were about eight. Billion dollars. But the districts that sign this letter, they want that plan to be fully funded.

Now

[00:18:13] Chris: the problem is these are largely urban school districts, and the lawmakers at State House really don’t care about what the urban districts have to say. Right? Yeah, sure. They represent the rural areas and they think the cities be damned. So how much, how much sway would this letter hold? Is it just to get it on the record that they opposed it in case there’s a lawsuit?

I,

[00:18:33] Leila: I don’t know. I mean, quite a few of the districts have signed on, but like you said, they, the, these are lawmakers who don’t represent them and don’t care about their interests, so, Uh, we’ll see if it has any, any effect.

[00:18:45] Chris: It is surprising the, the kind of abandonment of public school education they’re talking about.

I get that there are a lot of public schools that are not doing as much as they can to educate children, and so they’re giving parents this [00:19:00] alternative, but that is thrown in the towel and basically washing your hands mm-hmm. Of insisting on better public schools.

[00:19:06] Lisa: Well, they’ve been starving them for years.

You know, that’s why they, they’re struggling, you know, with standardized testing and stuff. So this is the, the rooster I, the chickens have come home to roost,

[00:19:17] Chris: all right? And you could argue that it was their master plan all along to reduce the value of public schools you’re listening to today in Ohio.

How is Senator she Brown stepping in on immigration policy and trying to preserve some of the status quo. Lisa, this seems like an odd position for She Brown to be taking. Yeah, and

[00:19:37] Lisa: this is not the first time that he and his fellow senator JD Vance have been in agreement, although for different reasons.

So she Brown announced. Bipartisan legislation that would extend Title 42 for two more years. And Title 42 was the Pandemic Era Immigration Restriction. Um, and that is set to end today. Tens of thousands of migrants, many of them from [00:20:00] Venezuela, have been gathering at the US border over the last week or so.

Um, it. The Pentagon is sending 1500 troops to support customs agents. Homeland Security is expanding detention, capacity, resources, and technology. The State Department is opening a regional processing centers will centers across the, uh, Western Hemisphere. But Brown says he did this because he says the border policies of Trump, Obama, Clinton, and George W.

Bush have all failed. We need more resources at the border. Police, military mental health professionals, inspectors, and he says it’s very troubling. And he says one of the reasons he wants to extend Fi Title 42 is cuz people are still getting sick and dying of covid, which was the reason for Title 42 in the first place.

And JD Vance in a statement says, you know, we can choose enforcement and citizen safety, or we can let the cartels run a rough shot over America. And he says, the Biden administration chose fentanyl and destruction.

[00:20:57] Chris: Yeah. Yeah, just rhetoric here. [00:21:00] The, at the base of this though is the idea that people in other countries do have a right to ask for Sanctuary In America.

Title 42 pretty much blocked. That made it much, much more difficult to to do, and so we’ve had these huge backups where people can’t even, can’t even put applications in the end of the pandemic policies was su. Post to open that up a little bit. And she, brown is saying, no, I want to take two more years of making it very difficult for people who believe they’re in danger to seek sanctuary year.

[00:21:36] Lisa: I am kind of in his camp though, because, you know, they are, you know, and they’ve been waiting for Title 42 to be lifted. So, like I said, they’ve been massing at the border and I mean, people are sleeping on downtown streets in El Paso waiting to cross. And I mean, so I, I, I. I, we, we can’t handle the flood. I don’t think we can handle the flood, no matter how many resources they [00:22:00] surge down there.

[00:22:01] Chris: Okay. You’re listening to today in Ohio. How close is Ohio to loosening up its child labor laws? Laura, we’re gonna put those youngsters to work.

[00:22:10] Laura: Oh, right. The 14 year olds are gonna save our economy because we want them to be able to work from seven to 9:00 PM during the school year, and the full house could vote on this.

As early as today. Um, it’s Senate Bill 30. It’s passed out of committee, and of course it’s still against federal law. So they wanna pass a resolution to tell the US government to change their standards, which by the way, first went into effect 1938.

[00:22:36] Chris: Yeah. The, the, we have a, a labor shortage in America. We know lots of employers are looking for people to work.

I, it’s so strange to me that one state after another is rolling back rules that we put in almost a century ago to protect our children. Yeah. Arkansas, Iowa,

[00:22:53] Laura: New Hampshire, New Jersey, and there’s six more states that are considering this. This is part of a playbook that people are [00:23:00] going after, kids saying they should be able to work.

Late into the evening. I, I find it abominable that we are trying to, you know, make this part of a solution for basically not paying people enough that they want to work those hours. Let somebody else, if, if they’re great jobs and people wanna work them, great, don’t make a 14 year old or a 15 year old who can’t even drive a car, go work these hours and, and Ecla Democratic Senator Ken Smith made, I mean, the point that I would make that if you want to address the work shortage, then increase.

Access to childcare. 20% of stay-at-home moms would enter the workforce if they had childcare assistance that could solve the labor shortage.

[00:23:39] Chris: Well, right. We and our story over the weekend about how, uh, Quebec has done that, demonstrated that there, there. Rationalization for this is, well, it’s up to the parents.

If a parent doesn’t want their 14 year old to work, then, then they don’t have to work. But I, this just opens the door for abuse of

[00:23:58] Laura: children and, and Layla made [00:24:00] the really good point last time that it’s a lot easier to tell your boss. I’m sorry, I’m not illegally allowed to work than it is to be like, oh, my mom won’t let me.

[00:24:08] Chris: Hmm. Yeah, I know. And, and, you know, said, just go ahead

[00:24:12] Laura: gov. Governor DeWine would have to sign it, but I can’t see him sticking up for kids. He, he really hasn’t, hasn’t been doing that. Even

[00:24:19] Chris: though he claims, I know from day one as governor that I’m the child governor, he’s gonna put him into this workshops.

It’s, um, Yeah, he’s been a, an amazing disappointment. You know, we said after we didn’t endorse him for the first term and then he did a good job in the beginning of the pandemic. We regretted it this time, we endorsed him and man, so far it’s really caused for regret. He has been a nightmare in not standing up for basic Ohioans.

You’re listening to today in Ohio, who’s the new sheriff in town? Layla.

[00:24:53] Leila: Well, county executive Chrisna chose longtime Cleveland Division of Police Officer Harold PreK [00:25:00] as the next sheriff. He has 30 years of law enforcement experience. He’s a former Marine who served in Japan, Korea, and California as a military police officer.

He worked for the County Sheriff’s Office briefly in 1990 as a corrections officer and then a deputy sheriff and detective before he joined the Cleveland Police in 1994, and he’s served the rest of his career there. He most recently served as Deputy Chief of Homeland Special Operations, and in that role he oversaw the Bureaus of Special Investigations, special Services and Homeland Services.

And Ronna said he was looking for a sheriff who understands the issues in the jail. Of course, who understands the needs of the community. Related to public safety and who can partner with local agencies across the county. And he feels really confident that that this is the guy he picked Pretail out of four finalists for the job.

And it all comes at a time when county council’s debating this question of who should the sheriff’s boss be? Should he report to Romaine or should [00:26:00] he be his own guy who doesn’t need to ask permission to make decisions for the jail or his department? So that’s where they are. But that,

[00:26:07] Chris: that’s a preposterous debate because the voters said the sheriff should answer to the executive.

If county council wants that to change, they need to put a charter change on the ballot so voters can do it. The voters spoke, the sheriff answers to the county executive. If they pass legislation to change that, that’ll end up in court. They’re breaking the charter. It’s just a bizarre one that we’re even talking about this.

It’s, it’s clear what the voter’s intent was. Um, and I, I just, Does county council approve this, or is that done already?

[00:26:40] Leila: Oh, that’s a good question. Uh, I, I don’t know the answer to that. If they have to approve this choice, I assume. I assume so. I feel like there is a confirmation requirement

[00:26:48] Chris: there. Yeah.

Yeah. So I’m sure they’ll ask him lots of probing questions to see who he wants to report to. Yeah, right. You’re listening to today in Ohio. This last one is a talker. John Kasik [00:27:00] made the Ohio tourism slogan something that never rang Clear. Find it here. Find what here. It never made sense. Mike DeWine just changed it.

What’s the new slogan people will see as they drive into the state? Lisa,

[00:27:13] Lisa: everything old is new again. So Mike DeWine is bringing back the old tourism slogan, Ohio, the heart of it all, which was used from 1984 to 2001. And he said, you know, it’s. Time to expand beyond tourism. He wants this campaign to focus on tourism, but new residents, workers and students to reverse our declining population.

And he said it’s really time to update the old Find It Hear slogan that was chosen by former Governor John Kasik, and he wants a more holistic approach to promoting Ohio. Uh, TV ads began airing yesterday and saying that Ohio is the heart of technology, the heart of adventure. Ohio Department of Development Director, Lydia Maholick says they decided to revive it after speaking with tourism and business leaders and marketing experts.

A lot of people still think it is [00:28:00] the Ohio motto and they say that Heart of all has some equity to it and they plan to ask for more money in the budget to attract workers. Um, so we’ll see how that goes.

[00:28:10] Chris: The heart of it all always made sense, right? Mm-hmm. The, the state is kind of shaped like a heart.

Mm-hmm. Right? Mm-hmm. We’re in the center of the country, kind of. Mm-hmm. We are kind of the heart of it all and you can do all the things they talked about, the heart of technology, the heart of manufacturing, the find it here, breaking with that, just for the sake of breaking with it. It’d be like pure Michigan deciding, let’s avoid pure Michigan.

Right. It’s a winner. You don’t give it up. Here’s my thing. And I sent this out on subtext today. We talked after the podcast yesterday about what a mess the new Ohio license plate is. You, you pointed out, Lisa, that when you’re driving, it’s so busy you can’t even tell what’s on it. Mm-hmm. The imagery is indiscernible this logo.

Is so clean. It looks great. Why isn’t that the Ohio license plate? I have the monstrosity on my car. [00:29:00] I would so much prefer the clean look of this one. I just don’t get why they’re not. It’s a great marketing concept, right? Mm-hmm. If you’re driving across the country and somebody sees the heart of it all with that pretty logo, wouldn’t that be better marketing than that?

Blur of

[00:29:17] Lisa: watercolor paint. Yeah, that muddy blur of color.

[00:29:22] Leila: I think the slogan should be unnecessarily fancy. Rest stops.

[00:29:27] Chris: Actually, I should say, I put a question on my text account about rest stops. Oh, there we go. And I got almost 400 responses, which is a staggering number. And everybody, well, it was mixed. I mean, most people were, I’m in and out.

And I’d rather not spend millions of dollars on them. I’d rather spend it on education and childcare and, I mean, it was amazing to me how many people said We have much more better needs for this, but, but I don’t wanna negate, there were a number of people that said, like, Lisa, look, this is advertising for the [00:30:00] state and it is a place where if you wanna take a break, you should be able to safely.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. One person said they regularly drive to Denver. And the shortest route is through Kansas, but they’ve changed their route cuz Kansas’ rest areas are filthy and disgusting. Mm-hmm. So they’ve, they’ve altered it and they said, you know, we spend money as we drive to Denver. So these states were driving through benefit from having good rest areas.

[00:30:26] Laura: So as someone who recently drove from Denver, it was not shorter to drive through Ted. Kansas, just to be clear, well, may,

[00:30:31] Chris: wherever they’re going in Colorado, they claimed that’s,

[00:30:34] Laura: or maybe they live somewhere else in, in Ohio.

[00:30:37] Leila: I wanna say there’s a, there is, there is a, a, a middle ground between filthy and disgusting and multi-million dollar upgrades.

And I’m sure we can find that. Oh, and

[00:30:46] Laura: Jeremy, Jeremy Peltzer is looking into this. He’s supposed to be talking to some more tourism experts about it and he knows that that restrooms are a hot topic and people want to know more about that. I can’t not. So we’re, we’re gonna bring you

[00:30:58] Chris: some more. I could not believe I [00:31:00] had, I think, what did I say, Lord, 270 responses, like within emails an hour.

Yeah. Yeah. It was just, whoa. I mean, people, and they’re still sending ‘em, I’m, you know, I send out a text every day about something we’re working on, and what I’m getting this week is, Hey, back to the restrooms and offering me this, you

[00:31:16] Laura: know what, what Mike DeWine said about the Find it here logo is that people were like using it for a bad thing, like find it here, like potholes and like mm-hmm.

So you could be like, I mean, and,

[00:31:26] Chris: and authoritarian legislators. Exactly. Excited. Hear

[00:31:30] Laura: dirty bathrooms. I mean,

[00:31:31] Chris: yeah. All right. That’s it for today in Ohio, for Thursday. Thank you, Lisa. Thank you, Layla. Thank you, Laura. Thanks to everybody. Listens. Friday wraps up the week of news.